PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 11, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The PFM Group noted today that offerings by two of their Financial Advisory clients, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART) Measure Q Sales Tax Revenue Bonds, Series 2011A and the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust Hybrid Structure New Money and Refunding Bonds, were finalists for The Bond Buyer's National Deal of the Year award announced recently. The SMART transaction was the regional winner for the Far West and the Massachusetts project was the Northeast regional winner. Both transactions were evaluated against numerous other deals from their regions to take the top positions in their respective areas.
The 2012 Bond Buyer awards program considered deals that closed between Oct. 1, 2011 and Sept. 30, 2012 and drew some 90 nominations for transactions ranging in size from a few million to billions of dollars. One finalist was selected from each of the five regions covered by The Bond Buyer and these two PFM clients represented two of them, or 40% of the finalist field. The entries were evaluated by The Bond Buyer's editors and bureau chiefs, who looked for innovation, ability to pull complex transactions together under challenging conditions, deals that could or did serve as a model for other financings, as well as the public purpose for which a transaction's proceeds were used.
A first time issuer, SMART faced an unprecedented challenge, which it overcame in a particularly creative way. While the initial escrow structure did not provide SMART with immediate access to construction funds, the short term and early conversion option provided SMART the flexibility to address the repeal initiative campaign at a very low cost. The issuance of the Series 2011A Bonds enabled SMART to enter into favorable contracts and avoid costly delays and strengthened the District's legal arguments for contract clause protection against any future effort to curtail the Measure Q Sales Tax. The long term remarketing in April established SMART as one of the premier transit credits in California and provided more than $170 million toward the goal of establishing modern passenger rail service in the North Bay.
The Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust State Revolving Fund Bonds, Series 16 and State Revolving Fund Refunding Bonds, Series 2012 became the first State Revolving Fund (SRF) to sell its bonds through a combined offering of a negotiated and a competitive sales process. By offering its bonds on both a negotiated and competitive basis, the Trust was able to leverage the expertise of its underwriting team to not only achieve substantial savings and programmatic changes, but also to decrease investment risk in the portfolio and to see to it that Massachusetts retail investors had an opportunity to invest in local infrastructure projects to create jobs right in the Commonwealth.
"We are honored that PFM, as Financial Advisor in both of these transactions, was able to be a part of these innovative financings that gained national recognition for our clients," said PFM CEO John Bonow.
Public Financial Management, Inc. (PFM) is part of the PFM Group of companies, providing independent financial advisory services to a broad base of local, state, and regional government and non-profit clients throughout the United States. PFM is a registered municipal advisor with the SEC and the MSRB under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, and has been ranked number one nationally in debt transactions for the past fourteen years in a row. The firm is well-respected for providing those clients with independent advisory services free of conflicts in their dealings with the capital markets in the fields of Higher Education, Public Power, Transportation, Healthcare, General Municipal and Management & Budget Consulting, among others. For the first nine months of 2012, PFM again led the market by advising clients on $40.8 billion of total debt issuances in 706 transactions. In addition, at September 30, 2012, PFM Asset Management LLC (PFMAM), a part of the PFM Group, had $44.8 billion in assets under management for state and local governments and non-profit institutions, and provided non-discretionary advice for an additional $25.6 billion in fixed income securities. PFMAM is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. PFM also provides best practices strategic consulting and pension advisory consulting services. The PFM Group currently employs more than 470 individuals serving a broad base of clients from offices in every region of the country.
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